Social Media Brain Impact Study

 

A recent study shows that preteens who use social media more frequently perform worse on reading, vocabulary and memory tests than those who use it less. The study, which used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, found that even low levels of social media use can negatively affect cognitive abilities.

Nagata JM, Wong JH, Kim KE, et al. Social Media Use Trajectories and Cognitive Performance in Adolescents. JAMA. 2025;334(21):1948–1950. doi:10.1001/jama.2025.16613

Brain Activity Using ChatGPT study

Recent research from MIT scientists compared the brain activity of students who used ChatGPT when writing to those who did not. The team's findings suggest that using ChatGPT resulted in less brain activity and inferior writing for students. However, they didn't find any brain rot.

Kosmyna, N. et al. (2025).Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task. ArXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872

Student Use of ChatGPT Research

 Recent research from MIT scientists compared the brain activity of students who used ChatGPT when writing to those who did not. The team's findings suggest that using ChatGPT resulted in less brain activity and inferior writing for students. However, “We didn't find any brain rot,” says Nataliya Kosmyna, a research scientist at MIT Media Lab.

Kosyna, N. (2025). Your brain on ChatGPT. Arvix. 

https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872

Brain and math study

Brain activity in male and female students ages 3 to 10 years old is largely similar when they are engaged in math tasks, according to a report released today in the journal Science of Learning. Researchers said they have, however, identified gender differences in high-level mathematical thinking. However, brain differences are not the reason. Researchers suspect the answer involves the societal messages girls and young women get, and the difficulty of entering a field that includes very few women. Males, especially if less strong in reading, lean to STEM; girls have more options so do not feel they have to enter STEM careers if they come from wealthier families.
Cantlon, J. (2019). Gender similarities in the brain during mathematics development. Science of Learning, 4, 19.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41539-019-0057-x

Kersey, A. J., Wakim, K. M., Li, R., & Cantlon, J. F. (2019). Developing, mature, and unique functions of the child’s brain in reading and mathematics. Developmental cognitive neuroscience, 39, 100684.

Reasons to Read Books

The World Economic Forum provides five research-based reasons why reading books is good for you:  longer life, more efficient knowledge gain, greater literacies, better vocabulary, better brain maintenance. For details, read https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/06/5-reasons-why-reading-books-is-good-for-you

Reading vs Listening Study

New evidence suggests that, to our brains, reading and hearing a story on an audiobook might not be so different. Researchers scanned the brains of nine participants while they read and listened to a series of tales from ‘The Moth Radio Hour.’ After analyzing how each word was processed in the cortex, they created brain maps, noting the different areas that helped interpret the meaning of each word. The stories stimulated the same cognitive and emotional areas, regardless of the medium.
Deniz, F. et al. (2019, Aug. 19). The representation of semantic information across human cerebral contex during listening versus reading is invariant to stimulus modality. Journal of Neuroscience,  0675-19.

Teen brain development

According to a new study, one in 4 Americans is a teenager or young adult, and the period represents some of the greatest peril and promise of their lives. Supports or inequities in adolescence are particularly likely to "get under the skin" of adolescents developing who they will be as adults. Emerging research identified adolescence and young adulthood—the period roughly from ages 10 to 24—as a second "critical window" of brain development after the early years. During this time, students become better at social learning, pattern recognition, and more responsive to changes in school and academic climates. Teenagers have been found to gain or lose as many as 20 IQ points during this period, making testing potentially less valid at the exact time it is used for critical decisions about their educational trajectory. Math or reading gender gaps can close or even flip. Teenagers' brain malleability, the research committee found, means that interventions during secondary school can help students overcome trauma or adversity in their early life. But adolescents also become increasingly aware of and damaged by bias, stereotypes, and institutional or social inequities, the report found, which can create "missed opportunities" for learning and becoming more resilient. Instructional interventions considered effective with younger students can suddenly backfire, and adolescents also have the greatest risk for developing mental illnesses or becoming involved in the justice system.

Bonnie, R., & Backes, E. (Eds.). (2019) Youth. Washington, DC: National Academies of Science.

https://www.nap.edu/read/25388/chapter/1#iii 

Cognitive Capacity Lowered Through Smartphone Usage

In this research, the researchers test the “brain drain” hypothesis that the mere presence of one’s own smartphone may occupy limited-capacity cognitive resources, thereby leaving fewer resources available for other tasks and undercutting cognitive performance. Results from two experiments indicate that even when people are successful at maintaining sustained attention—as when avoiding the temptation to check their phones—the mere presence of these devices reduces available cognitive capacity. Moreover, these cognitive costs are highest for those highest in smartphone dependence. The researchers conclude by discussing the practical implications of this smartphone-induced brain drain for consumer decision-making and consumer welfare.

Ward, A. F., Duke, K., Gneezy, A., & Bos, M. W. (2017). Brain drain: The mere presence of one’s own smartphone reduces available cognitive capacity. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2(2). https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/691462

Cognitive Functioning in Development

This study reports the dynamic anatomical sequence of human cortical gray matter development between the age of 4-21 years using quantitative four-dimensional maps and time-lapse sequences. Thirteen healthy children for whom anatomic brain MRI scans were obtained every 2 years, for 8-10 years, were studied. By using models of the cortical surface and sulcal landmarks and a statistical model for gray matter density, human cortical development could be visualized across the age range in a spatiotemporally detailed time-lapse sequence. The resulting time-lapse "movies" reveal that (i) higher-order association cortices mature only after lower-order somatosensory and visual cortices, the functions of which they integrate, are developed, and (ii) phylogenetically older brain areas mature earlier than newer ones. Direct comparison with normal cortical development may help understanding of some neurodevelopmental disorders such as childhood-onset schizophrenia or autism. Lastly, cognitive and neuroscientists called for educators to foster school cultures that better support adolescent development.

Gogtay, N., Giedd, J. N., Lusk, L., Hayashi, K. M., Greenstein, D., Vaituzis, A. C., Nugent III, T. F., Herman, D. H., Clasen, L. S., Toga, A. W., Rapoport, J. L., & Thompson, P. M. (2004). Dynamic mapping of human cortical development during childhood through early adulthood. PNAS, 101(21), 8174-8179. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0402680101